Method of swaging bulbs on wire



May 17; 1932. R. MORESCHINI METHOD OF S WAGING BULBS ON WIRE Filed June 11, 1928 5 Sheetsheet 1 IN V EN TQR. Wowk? 77207 65671272 .4,

A TTORNEY y 1932- R. MORESCHINI ,858,306

METHOD OF SWAGING BULBS ON WIRE Filed June 11, 1928 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. fiG/ZaZJ 77ZQ asc/ZJ/ZZ A TTORNEY May 17, 1932. R. MOR ESCHINI METHOD OR SWAGING BULBS ON WIRE Filed June 11, 1928 ZSSheets-Sheet 3 INVENTOR. 770/262Z6Z %166 CZ zkza BY Wt 61 @7M' ATTORNEY Patented May 17, 1932 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE METHOD OF SWAGING BULBS ON WmE Application filed June 11, 1928. Serial No. 284,519.

This invention relates to the manufacture of nails and screws from continuous lengths of wire. More particularly this invention relates to a wire bulbing process and a machine 2 for making the same, since the purposeof the invention is to upset wire at spaced 1ntervals and thereby produce spaced bulbs on the wire which may thereafter be formed into the heads of nails or screws.

In continuous wire nail machines which form nails from a long length of wire fed through the machine, difliculty is experienced in the production of large heads on the nails such as are desirable for roofing nails and other nails requiring large heads. Where very large heads are desired on nails having small stems it has heretofore been impossible to make them by a swaging process because it was not possible to produce a bulb having sufiicient volume or amount of metal.

The principal objects of the present inven-.

tion are to provide an improved method of forming bulbs at intervals on wires of comparatively small gauge, of suflicient volume to produce extra large heads; to provide a method of forming bulbs on continuous w1res by a series of progressive steps; to provide a machine for forming bulbs which can be used as an adjunct to a standard type wire nail machine by placing the improved bulbing machine in such position that wire from the bulbing machine will pass directly 1nto the nail forming machine; and to so arrange the improved machine that it may be operated in unison with the standard type of nall machine.

With the above and other objects in view the invention will now be described in detail, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section and partly broken away showing a machine embodying my invention and for carrying out my improved method;

Figure 2 is a plan view of said machine;

Figure 3 is a view from one end, one half being in elevation and the other half in section;

Figure 4 is an elevation from the opposite end of the machine; 7

Figure 5 is a detail, showing the spring arrangement used in returning certain dies after the bulbing operation;

Figure 6 is a fragmentary detailof the ball bearing to reduce friction for the floating dies during their travel while under pressure created by the dies closed upon the wire;

Figure 7 is a detail of certain means for holding the bell-crank yieldingly against the I pusher rod; 1

Figure 8 is a view of the wire showing the different stages of the bulb being swaged thereon; and T Figure 9 is an illustrative view showing a large headed nail that is formed from small 135 guage wire with large bulbs swagcd thereon according to my invention.

In the machine which I have shown to illustrate my invention there is disclosed a base 10, which in use will be bolted securely to the floor in alinement with and just forward of the front end of an ordinary nail machine, it not-being deemed necessary here to show such a machine as my bulbing machine may be connected to any of the existing wire nail machines. This base 10 is provided on its sides with lugs 11 between whichseats the bottom of the main frame 12 of the bulbing machine. The position of the frame 12 on the base is regulated by the usual adjust- X ing screw 13, so that the interval between the dies of the nail making machine and the dies employed in this bulbing machine may be regulated in such manner that the heading dies of the nail making machine will cooper ate with the bulbing dies of the bulbing attachment. Extending longitudinally of the mainframe at each side thereof is a shaft 15 and on each of these shafts is mounted a jaw operating lever having a cylindrical body portion 16 from which depends a leg 17 notched at its lower end to form a fork through the arms of which passes a shaft 18 carrying a roller 19. Longitudinally of the bottom part of the frame there extends a shaft 20 on which is fixed a cam 21 having oppositely disposed working surfaces which engage the rollers 19 to separate the lower ends of the legs ofthese levers and which disengage from said rollers to permit the lower me ends of these legs to be drawn together by a spring 22. The shaft 20 is connected by bevel gears 23 to a lateral shaft 24 which. is suitably connected by any desired means to the driving shaft of the particular nail makin machine used. By this means the shaft 20 of the bulbing machine is driven in timed relation to the shaft of the nail making machine. portions 16 there is provideda pair of fixed jaw supports 25 which'are' slotted to receive wire gripping dies 26 adjusted ,towardeach other by means of the screws 27 and locked in adjusted positions by the locking screws 28. At the front end of each member 16 there is provided an upstanding abutment 29 and shafts 30 extend from these abutments into the fixed members 25, the space between the abutment and fixed member on each lever being provided with a flat guideway 31. Slidably mounted on each shaft 30-is a pair of slidable or floating die-blocks 31, the blocks being slotted like the fixed jaws 25 and being provided with wire gripping jaws 32 in the slotted portions, which are adjusted and secured in the manner before described. Ball bearings 33 serve to facilitate sliding-movement of the floating die-blocks 31"on the shafts 30 and guide-way 31. In order to normally hold these die-blocks in spaced relation to each other and to the fixed members 25, there is provided on each'head a lug 34 and on the lever 16 is provided a lug 35. Shafts 36 are fixed in the lugs 35 and extend slidably through the lugs 34, each of these shafts being provided intermediate its ends with a stop nut 37 normally engaging the lug 34 nearest the lug 35. Springs 38 surround the shafts 36 and urge the lugs 34 apart and away from the lug 35-as can readily be seen by reference to Figure 5.

Extending transversely of the machine forwardly of the front heads 31 is a cross-head 39 which has its ends connected by side links 40 with the journal ends 41 of a transversely extending rocker member 42 arranged at the rear of the machine, this rocker member having a centrally disposed, downwardly-extending hub portion 43 mounted between bearing lugs 44 extending rearwardly from the machine frame and supporting a shaft 45 on which the hub 43 may oscillate. Extending forwardly from the hub 43 is a rocker-arm 46. At the rear part of the frame above the shaft 20 is a pair of spaced crosshead guides 47 wherein slides a vertically movable cross-head 48 carrying a wrist pin 49 on which is pivoted a rod 50. The underside of the rocker-arm 46 is formed on an arc concentric with the axis of the wrist pin 49 and this wrist pin lies vertically below this are. The rod 50 is forked at its upper end and carries an anti-friction roller 51 which engages the arcuate under face of the arm 46. In the frame above the arm 46' is mounted a At the rear end of the cylindrical.

the wire.

spring seat 52 (see Fig. 7 wherein is seated a spring 53 having at its lower end a lower spring seat 54 which maintains the rockerarm 46 against the roller 51. Projecting rearwardly from the frame is a bracket 55 on which is slidably mounted a head 56 which is adjusted toward and from-the frame by an adjusting screw57. This bracket is connect- .ed to the arm 50 by a link 58 so that the arm 50 may be moved forwardly or rearwardly at its upper end according to the manner in which the screw 57 is rotated. By this means the roller 51 engages the rocker-arm 46 at any desired distance from the fulcrum of said rocker-arm and consequently the effectivr length of the rocker-arm 46 may be varied at will. By certain means, presently'to be described, thecross-head 48 is'moved a definite fixed distance up and down by each rotation of the shaft 20 so that the rocker-arm 46, 01 each rotation of said shaft, will move up and down a fixed distance at the point of contact of the roller 51. By varying-the point of contact by adjusting the screw 57, the angular movement of'the rocker-arm 46 may b. varied and consequently the linear movement about the fixed shaft 45 of the rocker member 42 and cross-head 39 may be varied to suit desired conditions. On the shaft 20 is a cam 59 which engages a roller 60 held-in: fork 61 carried by the cross head 48. This cam is so arrangedthat the cross-head 48 operates in timed relation to the rocking of the main levers 17. That is to say, the cam 21 first operates to rock the main levers 17 t. move their upper ends toward each other to thereby grip the wire which is to be bulbed. Meanwhile the roller 60 is on a lowered dwell on the cam 59. When the jaws are closed and the wire is gripped, the cam 59 the; raises the cross-head 48 and pulls forwardly the gripped portions of the wire which are tightly held between the jaws, thus upsetting or swaging the portion of the wire between the tow-sliding die-heads 31 and the portion" between the aw 25 and the adjacent diehead 31, thus causing the metal at these portions to bulge outwardly forming bulbs on This upsetting or swaging action has been effected, during the time the rollers 19 rest on the spreading dwells of the cam 21.

The cam -59 then turns sufiiciently to let the cross-head 48 drop down, but just previous to this, the rollers 19 have passed.- off of the spreading dwells of the cam 21 and the movable jaws have opened, so that the slidable dieheads 31 can freely separate under the influence of the springs 38. The timing of the operation is such, in its relation to the nail making machine, that at this instant the usu al feeding mechanism of the nail making-machined raws the wire forward for a fresh grip. The adjusting nuts 40a on the ends of the links 40, bear against washers 40?) which are arcuate on one face to prevent any torsional strain caused by the rocking movement of the rocker member 42.

As I have previously pointed out, the main purpose of my invention is to provide a method of forming very large bulbs on wires of small diameter or gauge. I accomplish this in the following manner. When the wire is fed forwardly by the pull of the feeding mechanism of the nail making machine with which the bulbing machine is connected, the forward bulb will be positioned in the groove of the heading dies of the nail-making machine, while the rear bulb will be positioned in the space between the fixed jaw 25 and the adjacent jaw member orsliding die-head 351. Accordingly when the bulbing machine again performs the series of operations in the sequence above described, a new bulb will be swaged from the metal of the wire between the two sliding die-blocks 31, while the size of the previously formed bulb now positioned between the fixed jaw member 25 and the adjacent sliding die-block 31' will be enlarged by the additional metal swaged into it as the die-block 31 upsets the portion of the wire between it and said bulb. Thus each operation of the machine will form a new bulb and simultaneously will enlarge the last bulb previously formed. I have indicated in Fig. 8, at 63a the bulb initially formed and at 636 the bulb enlarged at each operation. In this manner I am enabled to form bulbs at the proper spaced intervals having the lar e amount of metal which is necessary when it is desired to form nails or screws having heads of extra sized diameters such as I have illustrated in Fig. 9.

\Vhile I have illustrated a machine for forming the enlarged bulbs in two operations or steps, it is evident that I may employ additional sliding die-blocks and increase the size of the bulbs by a number of successive operations.

Preferably there is provided at the forward end of the bulbing machine the usual set of wire straightening rollers 62 or some other equivalent wire straightening device, the wire straightening device of the nailmaking machine being removed so as not to interfere with the bulbed wire. It is not absolutely essential that my bulbing machine should be associated with a wire nail-making machine in the manner herein described although this arrangement constitutes a very convenient and efficient organization.

I claim:

1. The method of making nails from continuous lengths of wire which includes the steps of swaging the metal to form bulbs or enlargements on a wire simultaneously at a plurality of positions at a predetermined distance apart, intermittently feeding the wire longitudinally forward said predetermined distance and swaging the metal to thereby initially form an enlargement at the first swaging position and add additional metal to the previously formed bulbs at the succeeding swaging position or positions, feeding the bulbed wire into a nail forming machine and maintaining said bulbing and said swaging operations in synchronism with the heading dies of the nailing machine.

2. The method of forming bulbs or enlargements upon a continuous wire at regular intervals, which consists in simultaneously upsetting the metal of the wire by a swaging operation at a plurality of positions at a predetermined distance apart to form a plurality of enlargements thereon, intermittently moving the wire forwardly longitudinally said predetermined distance and swaging the metal to thereby initially form an enlargement at the first swaging position and add additional metal to the previously formed enlargements at the succeeding swaging position or positions.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

RONALD MORESCHINI. 

